Array capillary in-tube solid-phase microextraction: A rapid preparation technique for water samples

► Array capillary in-tube solid-phase microextraction (ACIT-SPME) was developed. ► ACIT-SPME was suitable for fast extraction of organic pollutants in water. ► Extraction was completed in 2min for 350mL water sample under gravity. ► The method was applied successfully for PAHs in real samples. A rapid sample preparation technique, namely array capillary in-tube solid-phase microextraction (ACIT-SPME) for direct extraction of organic pollutants from water samples, was developed and evaluated. The ACIT-SPME cartridge consisted of a bundle of glass capillary tubes of 0.5mm I.D.×30mm contained inside a quartz liner of 4mm I.D. The high ratio of cross-section area of channel-to-wall allowed water sample flow through the cartridge just under gravity. Both the internal/external surfaces of the array capillary tubing were coated with extraction phase of 2–5μm in thickness, which provided large extraction surface area up to 30cm2 for a cartridge containing 19 glass capillaries. The large surface area and thin extraction phase improved greatly both the mass transfer process of extraction and the thermo desorption process, leading to fast extraction and fast desorption. The extracted analytes were thermally desorbed in a homemade thermal desorption unit (TDU), which was coupled to a gas chromatograph equipped with a flame ionization detector for analysis. By using polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) as the extraction phase and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) as the model analytes, the performance of the ACIT-SPME cartridge was systematically investigated. The extraction time was 2min for 350mL of water sample, and detection limits were between 0.8 and 1.7ng/L with deviation of 2.8–9.7% RSD. Relative recoveries of analytes for real water samples were between 65.0% and 116%. The extraction time can even be further shortened to 10s for 250mL sample by applying vacuum at the outlet of the cartridge, with detection limits of 2.2–5.3ng/L and deviation of 4.0–12% RSD.